Charles Sumner Greene
Henry Mather Greene

The brothers who were to win renown as the architectural firm of Greene and Greene, were born in Brighton, Ohio -- Charles in 1868, Henry in 1870. Their father, Thomas Sumner Greene, and mother, Lelia Mather Greene, came from old New England families that included Revolutionary War hero Nathanael Greene on the father’s side and Cotton Mather on the mother’s.

A move to St. Louis enabled the Greenes to enroll at the innovative Manual Training High School of Washington University, where they learned drawing, carpentry, metalworking and similar trades. Architectural studies at MIT and apprenticeships in Boston completed their formal training.

In 1893, the brothers followed their parents to the newly founded city of Pasadena, Calif. As Bruce Smith and Alexander Vertikoff note in their book, "Greene and Greene: Masterworks," a survey of the brothers’ 25 finest buildings, the Pasadena area "provided a perfect mixture of eastern erudition and a freedom from social and class restraints that allowed the Greenes to take their architecture in directions inconceivable in the traditional East. California also provided them with clients who could afford the workmanship and artistry of their designs." In 1894, the Greenes (aged 25 and 23) opened an architecture office in Pasadena. "Clients willing, their commissions involved not just house designs but also furniture, carpets, light, art glass, and landscaping."

Refined and exceptionally well-crafted, their creations became known as "the ultimate bungalows." A classic Greene and Greene house is "a seamless fusion of simplicity and sophisticated detail with meticulous attention to building materials and natural surroundings," write Smith and Vertikoff. The years between 1903 and 1909 are generally recognized as the brothers’ most creative period. Most of it was centered in the Pasadena area. The Bandini House (1903) was their first widely published design. Blacker House and Gamble House (the latter regarded as Greene and Greene’s finest work.) were designed in 1907 and 1908, respectively. [Gamble House, at 4 Westmoreland Pl., Pasadena, is open for public tours.]

Henry Greene’s son recalled how the brothers initially worked. Charles, he said, "by nature was an artist and designer," whereas his father "excelled in the construction and ‘getting things done’ categories." Smith and Vertikoff write that "Henry ran the office. Charles met with clients and, often, from the upstairs studio in his home, would create the designs and turn over his sketches to the draftsmen." By the end of their careers, however, each brother "had excelled architecturally in his own way."

In 1916, Charles withdrew from the practice, moving to Carmel, Calif. By 1922, the brothers had stopped using the name of Greene and Greene. "Henry worked on alone; Charles did some architecture but more and more devoted himself to his artistic and spiritual pursuits." For a time, their work was virtually forgotten, but in 1952 the brothers were honored by the American Institute of Architects "as formulators of a new and native architecture." In a foreword to the Smith and Vertikoff book, Edward R. Bosley writes: "The architecture and decorate arts of [the Greenes] occupy a sacrosanct but veiled niche within the American Arts and Crafts movement."

Henry Greene died in Altadena in 1954, Charles in Carmel in 1957.

For further information check: The Greene and Greene Website  or the Gamble House Website  

-- Contributed by Albert Greenstein, 1999

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